The present invention relates to an automatic music playing apparatus using a magnetic recording/reproduction device and a digital memory.
Conventionally, recording of music sources as analog signals and their reproduction (playing) have been widely performed using magnetic tapes. However, according to this technique, the play time is equal to the tape travel time, so that only about 20 popular music pieces at most can be recorded on a single cassette tape.
In order to increase the number of music pieces to be so stored, the KCS (Kansas City Standard) method or the like is proposed. According to this data conversion method, music piece data stored in a digital memory is recorded as digital data on a magnetic tape. Music data corresponding to one music piece can be recorded in a time interval corresponding to a tape travel time of 15 to 20 seconds. Therefore, 200 to 300 popular music pieces can be recorded on a single cassette tape. In the play mode, desired music piece data prerecorded on the cassette tape can be transferred to the digital memory at any time, thereby performing automatic play.
There often arises a demand for replacing a prerecorded music piece data with another music piece data. In this case, if the new music piece data is longer than the old music piece data it is to replace, in the conventional method the new music piece data cannot replace the old, resulting in inconvenience.